Friday, December 20, 2013

It’s holiday season, so when I was invited to spend an
evening with angels, how could it pass it up? Here’s the catch -- the angels
I’m talking about are not celestial beings. They are investors in startup and
early stage ventures, and they were all on a panel at Ultra Light Startups
Investor Feedback Forum in New York.

I haven’t been to an entrepreneur pitching event in over a
year, so I was really looking forward to it. I was not disappointed. Eight
creative entrepreneurs gave a two-minute pitch to the panel of seasoned
investors and an audience of over 200 at Microsoft’s New York offices. (Full disclosure: I was
invited by one of the pitching entrepreneurs, Jim Medalia, owner of 225AM.) The
panel asked questions and made insightful comments to each presenter. It was
very interesting to hear the questions the panelists asked and the advice they
gave not only to 225AM, but also to the other presenters. The investors saw the
companies from such different perspectives than the founders.I could see how some of the comments gave new ideas to the presenters.

I was amused that during the advice portion, the hosts took
the microphone away from the presenter. That forced the entrepreneur to listen
and not use up time commenting on the advice. I’ve never seen that done before.
Very good!

One thing that really struck
me about the event was the number of women in the audience & in the mix of
pitchers. In Connecticut,
I only see a handful of women showing up at such events. And articles in the
media would have you thinking that there’s a dearth of women entrepreneurs in
the tech space. Not so last week. In fact, the entrepreneur who was chosen as
the best presenter by the audience was a woman who had used technology to
create new way for hard-to-fit women (ones who wear size 18+) to choose and buy
custom-fit clothing. (Cynthia
Schames - AbbeyPost)

Each presenter had
developed an innovative solution to a genuine problem. Jim Medalia’s company, 225AM.com , provides an online service to help
college and graduate students find full-time employment. Although the panelists
joked about the name of the company, it captures the difficulty college
students have today to fit job hunting into their demanding schedules. They only
have time to work on their job search at 2:25 AM.

The need for help with
finding employment is very real for college and grad students. Only 50% of
college students graduate with a full-time job. 225AM acts like a mentor,
guiding them through the process, organizing them, prompting them to take the
actions they need to, and helping them connect to a network of referrals they
didn’t even realize they had. If the student doesn’t know what they want to do
when they graduate, the software helps them narrow it down. The placement
offices at the University of Pennsylvania, Rutgers, the University of
California at Berkeley and Stanford have all signed up to do beta tests with
their students.

The other presenters had
equally interesting businesses filling an incredible variety of needs:

I left feeling really excited about all the incredible
energy that is going into the creation of new businesses in the New York Metro
area. As a bonus, I got to see the angels and the tree at Rockefeller Center
on my walk to Grand Central from Microsoft’s offices on 6th Avenue. This made for a
perfect ending to the evening.

About Me

Owner of Upstart Business Planning: I craft business plans that answer the questions investors ask most often. Co-Author of The Purpose Is Profit: The Truth about Starting and Building Your Own Business and The Startup Roadmap: 21 Steps to Profitability"

Only 1 - 2% of business plans raise funding. 60% of the plans I've done have helped owners raise capital.

I was a founder of and former board member of At Home In Darien (formerly Aging in Place+Gallivant), a nonprofit in Darien, CT.
* MBA from Wharton in Marketing and Finance.